In a video posted on the Poynter Institute website, Chip Mahaney, senior director of local operations for E. W. Scripps says the upcoming merger with Journal Communications will occur “likely sometime in April.”
The merger will spin the newspapers off into a separate group, with Scripps taking the TV stations under its wing.
“For the first time in 130 years we will not own newspapers,” Mahaney said.
He added: “What Scripps has always done is look ahead. And to figure out what platforms do we need to be on that are most relevant to our consumers.”
Toward that end, FTVLive is reporting layoffs are occurring at Scripps stations KNXV in Phoenix, KMGH in Denver, KGTV in San Diego and WEWS in Cleveland. It also reports that Scripps is hiring “digital content” people “to run at least some of their TV newsrooms.”
TVSpy is reporting that a Scripps press release says some job positions “have lived within our newsrooms for years” and changes are being made “to better support our multi-platform future. That means relocating more resources to content creation.”
Scripps corporate communications director told TVSpy: “We want to have more people involved in actual newsgathering – out in the field – especailly for investigative coverage on a daily basdis.”
According to the press release Scripps chairman president and CEO said “we are focused on digital video” and the addition of “Newsy video players” gave the company a “big boost’ in the fourth quarter.
Stay tuned to see what, if anything, this will mean for WTMJ-TV, whose 10 p.m. newscast was fourth ranked during the February sweeps.
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